##VIDEO ID:Vy-zs5Uk1EY## [Music] good evening everyone today is Tuesday October 1st and the time is 6:31 p.m. and I'd like to call the meeting to order first on our agenda is the consent agenda minutes from September 17th 2024 any questions or comments on the minutes hearing none I'll take the motion I'll make a motion to accept the minutes from September 17 2024 can I have a second I'll second all those in favor I next is warrants 19 and 20 which have been passed around for Signature questions or comments on either of those hearing none I'll take the motion I'll make the motion to approve warrants 19 and 20 can I have a second second all those in favor next is visitors comments any citizen wishing to speak before the committee must sign in with the administrative assistant prior to the opening of the regular session of the school committee the visitor will identify themselves by name and address and shall speak for no longer than 3 minutes for anyone unable to sign in ahead of time we ask that you clearly state your name and address so that this information can be included in the record for the meeting is that just me for tonight it is yeah okay should I come on up right here and have a seat next to the my goodness thank you so much ready yeah hi everyone um I am Liz Leon I'm a relatively new Resident to Grandy but this will be my final move that I moved out of sold my house in Hatfield where I was for 30 years um and I know you have a vacancy on the school committee um so I want to come and introduce myself I know nothing about the process um or how you've gone about the process to get applicants um but I will tell you that I did serve uh two and a half terms I was originally appointed to Phil vacancy in Hatfield back in the the 2000s early 2000s um after both my kids graduated and some folks uh stepped up who had younger kids in school I thought it was a good opportunity for me to step away um but I loved the work and the work with my colleagues on behalf of the students in Hatfield and um I think overall we did a pretty good job for the district um never easy um this is the least glorious um elected position in any Community um but you're doing the best work in my opinion because it's about the kids right and how you can help them get to where they need to be in life I'm currently living on Pleasant Street um with my daughter and my son-in-law and they're two boys which is an adventure for sure um we're building a new home down in Philip drive so we're waiting for that to be finished um I currently work for the bass Association of school committees as a field director where I've been in various capacities for gosh I lose track of these things and I guess I don't pay close enough attention but probably eight or nine years um in fulltime for the past four so school committee work is really something I know very well and I have a great passion for because of the impact it can have not only on the students who attend the schools but the community as a whole and how you um can and how we can work to help the community support the schools excellent well we're very excited to have you here well I'm very excited to be here so I have been um speaking with our town clerk Kathy Kelly Ragan okay and what she said is um once we have a name then we can can go ahead and bring the name forward and it would be um it's filling in for a spot that is um been vacant so there's uh about five four and a half or five months left on that existing term okay and then if you're happy with it and you would like to continue um pulling papers for the position for the next three years term would be um I think it's in February is time frame um so you must have May elections yes yes okay so I think uh pull papers return them back or maybe it's March and you have to get them back and then uh Town elections is earlyish May middle of May and it's a three-year term um but this would be for a we'll call it a five-month appointment has it been vacant for three years no it's been vacant for about uh six months okay maybe give April March May right well it's October one right so um about yeah five six months we'll say five months um and um so we uh we've been down one which does make it difficult um forums yeah for quorums so um especially with other things that people have going on in their lives so um yes um so we would love to have you join us if you're willing we can uh bring your name forward if you have other specific questions we can try to answer those the best we can but it seems like you probably know more than we do oh I don't know about that I certainly don't know more than you do about grany um I do know Mary Jane and I've known her for a few years now anyway three or four years um through my work with the school committee Association um I am interested because it makes a big difference uh I've known your past three previous superintendence through my work um and so I have somewhat of an idea about the needs um in the district U but I have an awful lot to learn um I have a few commitments on my calendar maybe not too many on Tuesday nights but I'm sure I have a few through early December that I would have to work around and beyond that I would look to just not schedule meeting nights which I have some flexibility to do excellent um I don't know I'm not really sure how the whole thing will work um so I will reach out to Katherine yeah Kathy Kelly Regan tomorrow and actually I'll probably just send her an email um while we're sitting here and just let her know and then she'll let me know how we're going to go about with um the process I couldn't find anything in the town bylaw about what the process would be and I know that small towns often so it's um we've had the situation I've been I'm starting my seventh year um and we've had this situation a few times and depending upon when it is in the term it's been done a little bit differently okay each time one time it was for a two-year thing so we had to have we had interviews and everything um another time it was a short stint like this until the next um process for pulling papers and they um we had a joint committee meeting or we actually I think attended um a a select board meeting they asked a couple of questions and um and then you just had to go down to the town hall to get sworn in okay and there's uh I did not also see uh like a a six-month or a one-year residency requirement to fill an elected position in Grandy I'm not aware of that and it hasn't been so I I'll um I'll send Kathy an email and fill her in on what the situation is and we can kind of great go from there I've been here since the beginning of August and um believe me after moving from my home of 30 years I do not plan on moving again you need your address address I have um I we've corresponded um on email so I have your cell phone and I have your email great and um once I uh touch base with her I'll reach out and we'll see how it goes great I'm actually very excited about this I haven't served on a school committee in a long time but I work with school committies pretty much all day every day so it'll be a nice U refreshing experience for me I know you find that hard to believe but since school committees are pretty much my life it will be nice to be on the other side of the table excellent well thank you so much it's really a pleasure to meet you and to uh have you be a part of our committee thank you so I will um reach out and I'll be touching base tomorrow hopefully great and I see you're going to discuss school Improvement plans so I'll stick around for a little while and and hear about that perfect thank you so much thank you okay all right it does not appear that Cole will be here totally fine next is new business um we are going to do a swap if it's all right with everyone and do the ski program presentation before the school Improvement plans good yeah all right awesome hey everyone hello so Alison Jordan building principal at the grma Junior Senior High School and I have Austin Smith who is is one of our full-time dual enrolled students at HCC um with me and Senior a member of the class of 2025 so we're here in a collaborative effort to present ski club and I told Austin I would do the bulk of the talking today but I also felt it was really important for Austin to share his role in bringing this forward this really stemed from a Austin and stopping me in the hallway some email exchanges probably since last spring we've been talking about it and it's really challenging to start a club in a late spring of a school year and especially if there's no stip and detached to it which is enticing for a staff member to take it on um there's a bit of history with Gran be having a ski club and it was really um implemented from Jim petus and through the lines Club in grany which was incredible um he facilitated the entire thing I actually was in conversation with Jim petus the other day when I let him know that we had this coming and told him I would pick his brain a bit so we're trying to find some information from the past to share with the school committee so you're aware of how it all came about and what I can really share with you is Jen petus ran pretty much all of it and it wasn't necessarily connected to Grammy Junior Senior High School with the exception of having our students participate so what we're here to do today is propose the idea of using one of our unfilled Club stiens to stip in position for ski club so we have two unfilled positions and we wanted to give you an idea of the survey that Austin created and shared out with this the student body to solicit some feedback if there was any interest so um in this past spring and now as I'm doing these college visits to hopefully go to in the future uh I can see that like there's a lot of students from other schools that have a lot of opportunities of for clubs that we don't necessarily offer and that I was hoping that I could start a club myself to help with that and I chose skiing because last year uh last winter I went with a big group of people skiing from you know current students and formerly graduated students and it was got me thinking of why we didn't have a ski club because I can see that there's a lot of interest in it um show results uh so last spring we did we did a survey on a Google form for grades 7 through 11 that we sent it out to and and it over the course of two sending the survey out twice we had 31 people who we said that they would be interested in participating in a ski club if we offered it so typically that's a first step in trying to gauge interests on the student body to see and I about 31 students was an incredible amount so what that then led us to was the reality of this can't happen in the spring for one there's no snow it depends what state you're in but let's look at something that we can potentially run for next year so Austin and I went back and forth um an email and I said I would do some more homework in area schools to see what they provide for their students and we play nice in the sandbox with Hopkins you know through some of our work with the it pathway and with South Hadley because they're so close and with Cooperative Sports so I said maybe we can align it similar to a Cooperative Sport and reached out and both schools responded um but we connected a little bit more with Hopkins and so the idea of working with Hopkins was to see if we could jump on board with transportation to help offset the costs for the students because we know that's going to be a reality soon is talking about that and also um joining in their student body because the minimum number to sign up at first year easte for their programming you have to have a minimum of 10 participants in order to qualify for that discounted rate so they were not they were on was sharing that piece but not the transportation piece so I understood that and been working with the person who oversees the ski club programming at their school and they provided us with a lot of great information um there was their first meeting of the Year September 25th I was unable to make it but she was able to share the information on the programming which is what I have here today I brought a copy not for everyone I brought four and their paper clip and St um you can pass them around but I highlighted a couple things on here that the program starts in early June the program really can last anywhere January not June I say June ah fast forwarding I meant January January and ending in late February um so your school would sign up so we would have to sign up on the same day as Hopkins and because we're part of that group and pick a day of the week to do it I believe I'm Mr petus did it it was on Fridays so really um having an adviser oversee the club they would be doing the bulk of organizing right now I'm bringing information to you and I don't have all the answers aside from U what's outlined in here which may be able to answer some of your questions we would treat it very similar to sports we would have to set something up on family ID there's the liability piece they have waivers at the mountain that you need to sign off on um it seems seems as if a lot of schools in our area have ski club already this type of programming we had in which is this is separate and I'm sharing this with you we had participated in a was it was an outline with Pope Francis Pope Francis I think it was one of my first years here back in 2015 maybe 16 I think when I took over as athletic director I think that was when we had I didn't we had one or two students that participated and then that student had graduated and we just it just went away we didn't really have much more interest but this is separate of that so that was something that was governed by the Mia this is not this is separate from that and I mean I'm not going to I won't go over everything but it looks as if you know we need to we would need to appoint an adviser to oversee the next steps in the process so we have a family we can join you know it's for our first year especially because I feel like we can't go independent until we're able you know to be on our own there's a lot of questions that we would have sure families would have and being able to sustain the position so I said earlier we have two un like unfilled positions um the stiffened amount is 63124 um for the programming so that's that would be filling that stifen with ski club so we had a couple clubs that weren't filled one of the clubs I'm proposing is to introduce Ski Club in place of that so questions do you have I have lots um but I have to finish the thought first do you need volunteers for chaperel likely in every 10 students there's a free Sheron ticket probably already getting a season pass for so we be all right so it says Fridays 9:00 a.m. to 9:00 p.m so how would that work we're not it's going to be a club not missing school right it would be after school how Jim petus ran it is the students would board the bus after school and they would go up to the mountain and they would return later at night okay it's really depends on when your block of time is sure um and then so I know one of your yeses is a potential winter athlete so I don't know how if you played a winter sport you wouldn't be able to necessarily do it every week right um so is it like would you sign up to say you're interested or you're locked in how does that work like what is great question I could imagine we would have multiple people I think that's the that's the tricky part right and you can't necessarily miss your school activity right your committed Mia sport for something like this so yes it would have to be the sign up and we wouldn't be able to amend the cost right it's one set flat rate you know yeah says there no refunds I can talk about the experience for my own children when they did Ski Club um you've signed up for um whatever it was for the six weeks of of the skiing and then um fortunately they were able to do it but um if you can't make it then right that's that was my experience because somebody was sick once and I knew you just um so I I'm just curious like of the 31 people I know one for sure happens to share my address so I you know I know that she like yeah I love to ski but there weren't weren't all the final details so I'm curious out the 31 students how many of those are also winter athletes that don't understand that it would necessarily conflict or remove them because I know Meredith was thinking maybe it would be on a weekend like oh we you know we'd be able to have time on a Saturday to go or get a you know a bus or um whatever so that's one of the things I'm um I know we especially with a partnership with Hopkins I think it's fantastic because we would be able to get to that um number but then the transportation piece if it's really you know seven students from Grammy that are going to do it how does that work for transportation and what does that look like it making sense or yeah yeah yeah it makes complete sense and I think schedules are done for winter and I would find sitting with Mr debuk would be appropriate to see what day is the least impacted day and then go from there and again I'm trying to partner with Hopkins they could already have a date and I think if it's it's first year doing it you know first time doing it under our roof that it would be important to maintain that relationship with them oh of course I'm just asking like how would how it would work and if some of those people that we think are interested don't realize that it would conflict with something that basketball like basketball or swimming or U wrestling or yeah there's another one I think for winter sport so you know I think it's fantastic personally like I would love to see how it come together I'm just trying to figure out logistically how it would work so that a lot of those people that are interested that don't realize it's going to be a conflict would be able to still partake and the the remaining people have the ability to do it like I don't want to take it away because we're thinking of the other athletes you know the winter athletes so um aren't you witer not anymore notore I used to be but yeah not this year um so ju just thinking of that other questions I'm talking you enough uh stien's not currently in use right so it just be transferring it to correct this use yes we have two unfilled okay yeah sounds like everybody's fired up about it it's it's cool to be able to introduce a club and you know have some more offerings I think it's awesome um I have questions about transportation and I'd like to see what that looks like um because I don't want to say all right great we've got the stien covered but transportation for us to do it is going to be $6,000 because it's a bus and it's winter and it's you know then that might be a better pill to swallow I'm just throwing numbers around I don't I have no idea what it would would look like you know um because that is a you know and I don't know if we did it can can people buddy up in a car or how does that work can they right and I I I feel like we would definitely need those numbers in order you know if be silly to get a school bus that's why we were trying to jump on board with Hopkins right and South Hadley very well may say to us you know we're going up on Friday you can come in with us because we've done that before with them for wrestling and so I think that piece is still is unknown um I don't think we wanted to go too far down before you know bringing it here and sharing the information out but we have some time on our side which is a good problem to have absolutely and you know start putting it out there and we very well could have staff that have more experience this is really like didn't really have much of a pretty straight forward with us and I'm like this is the first room me buddy like we G to figure this out together because it's it's a lot especially if you're unfamiliar with it right and so it would be one night a week for the duration of four to six weeks right whatever night as something else as I'm thinking about this if we have that stien for a club could we consider doing like a group trip on a weekend pick four or five random dates and do something like that which still count as a ski club it could still be sanctioned by the school because Mr petus also did trips like that you know meet at the school at 7:00 a.m. there's a bus you go um and we didn't always go to Berkshire East now Mr petus was my sixth grade math teacher and he's been running trips since since then and I'm old now so like you know there are other ways that we could do that to introduce a club and we had you know we had you know we would come get on the bus go parents would follow kids would ski come home on the bus stop at McDonald's you know it was a lot of fun and we went to other mountains besides just um Berkshire East yeah that's good thinking too and I think we could definitely for your suggestion look at two different fruits they really depend on interest right you know so if we have five kids we we have we would have more flexibility I would say to be able to entertain and if the five kids or five athletes then we would have to likely shift and look at a weekend you know but we're always up against something whether they're working or PSNS or whatever they have of course yeah I would love to see how we can get this implemented because I think it would be great like you say Austin when you go with your kids to other places and you're listening to the different events that they have or you know we do a damn good job with what we've got but it would be nice to be able to come up with some other um some other options so I I personally love this idea and I would love to see some more information so I think we have a meeting again in two weeks do you think you might have more um more time to fill in some blanks last us to us yep we'll get you on the agenda and if if not just send us an email and we'll post to the next one CU I don't know I don't see it says December 1st so we have plenty of time but it would be um nice to kind of fill in the gaps a little bit what specific information would you be looking for um transportation how that's going to how that piece is going to work um what the interest looks like as far you know we're serious about this do you have a conflict with a winter sport you plan on attending I mean there's people that sign sign up for a sport then they maybe don't make the team or they change their mind or whatever maybe this if they're waffling maybe they'll be like oh I just want to do school club I don't want to go out for this that or the other thing and see what that interest looks like um any other things that you guys want to have as far as missing pieces M stop my head is tonight informational or did you need to vote on that stien yeah so it was really interesting because the stiens technically already voted on good okay so because it lives in the UN and it's unfilled it exists okay and I think I unchecked the box for that because I was like well they don't have to vote to approve a new club and to giving me the side eye which she's going to tell me I'm wrong which oh no I just know that last year we voted to transfer the yoga Club to the wrestling I mean to the weightlifting as a stien so I know that there was a vote by the committee last year to transfer the you of the of it because it was it was itemized out as a yoga and we were changing that so we need to do that so if this one is unfilled I think we would have to do a vote to say that it's going to be for ski club so that their the accounting of it would be it just this whole year then because we already have established clubs so and that's what we ran up against this year with bringing weight room in and yoga in you know we're not running those because they're not in the unit a contract as a stud tyed because those were in the same process right that we were just talking about so it would go back to the default clubs and then when we renegotiate the UN contract is a good opportunity to say get rid of some of the existing ones that are that go unfilled and replace them with yoga that's more up and coming and weightlifting and ski club for example so and I'm we're happy to wait I can hit the check box on the vote piece but I would prefer if we then wait for the next meeting so I can hash out the transportation yeah that transportation is really the biggest question for me interest is really falls on you guys um but what I don't want to do is um agree to something and then it's going to put us over uh on Transportation or you know having to be short somewhere else right got it maybe carpooling might be a yeah I what are the what are the options you know can we can we legally do a carpol thing if it's the club yeah you know I'm impressed by the initiative thank you just setting it up and coming in here and having a novel idea and having the energy to go before a group of people I want to support this so just uh keep grabbing the details come on back and let's get this finalized and rolling it's all downhill from here ah nicely [Laughter] done right thank you would you have a an idea of what the pricing would be I don't know I don't think a lift ticket prices are out yet so it's probably not going to be I think there's something balen in here that says that the rates are not finalized okay yeah that's what I think I said um I don't want so yeah yes yes I just want to make sure that well we put it out there that um have that information out before they sign up too right because they may want it and they G I Can't yeah like I said they had the meeting on the 25th but they didn't go the person I was talking with at Hopkins said they were happy to share the information um and let them know that gry was looking to jump on board so I have not followed up with that person yet but I can and just see if they received any additional information thank you thanks for coming in this is great we're gonna we got to make this happen oh they do have something in here about single day visits okay all righty uh next up is School Improvement plans do you want to go first Ally since you already up here you ran away too quickly okay Alis and building principle grmy Junior Senior High School I present to you our school Improvement plan for the 2425 school year you will see that there have been very little changes to the school Improvement plan as our District Improvement plan remained pretty much the same I know that we had all met as leadership and updated the district Improvement plan and the assistant principal Scott frenier and I updated our school Improvement plan and brought it before the school council last week and we have haven't received any comments or suggestions back on the document we were in conversation and reviewed the goals um with members of the school council but again um it is very similar to how it looked last year with a big focus on goal one on data and using iel um using our walkthrough data with our partnership with tntp um mcast data that was just released last year we did the best that we could to try to utilize our team leaders um and also our student support team members and our grade seven and grade eight teams to be able to utilize the data I think there's work that can be done in that area for sure um so When developing the the PD plan for the year for the staff there's four different dates for the staff to review data we're calling it a data dive and we're just waiting for all the information to be at our disposal so the mcast data that was released from the Embargo um it we are now in a place where we should be able to move forward with reviewing all the data um especially in the dashboards where it's all housed in a One-Stop shop I also do feel it would be appropriate to encourage our teachers to sit down with some of our students to review some of the the questions the specifics on the mcast student reports um I spent a couple hours today looking at some of the students that weren't as successful in really trying to see what areas that we need to do better in and so I was looking at biology and I was looking at grade 10 Ela and that information again we just got the student summaries delivered yesterday so I wanted to hone in on some of that but that information um we started having student conversations but I think it needs to be more detailed and specific and it's really helpful for the teachers so they know if there's any areas of of missed instruction um goal number two is around a Continuum of support um this area is has been part of the school Improvement plan for the last few years this is ongoing work in our district um it's ongoing ready work we've brought our ready work plan forward to the school committee before it talks about the workshops we're doing the partnership with the ADL the partnership with CES and the ongoing work to support all students in the district it also includes reviewing our program of studies our student handbook um reviewing first I'm going to forget about this uh just other procedures and processes such as dual enrollment that you're all well aware of um NHS bylaws things that we have in place that we really need to Screen through a different lens so it's ongoing work and I feel like we've made great strides in this area it definitely is not easy work there are some more specifics in here I like established student lab clubs organizations or Affinity groups look at that working on that the one area in here I'm going to be honest with you that was really it was hard to take out but we needed to take it out because we just haven't been able to commit to a portrait of a graduate and I see others districts that have a portrait of a graduate and I look at it we study it and I'm familiar with a district um and where I live and looking at all the language and I don't know what to make of all of it it's really hard to like where do you even start you know because we're doing so much other work it wasn't fair to start anything else so I feel like having some of these existing structures in place and a good base and Foundation would be appropriate before we move forward so we did remove it off of our school Improvement plan our third goal is really heavy around curriculum as you know we implemented IM four grade seven math eight math and nine which is algebra 1 and it is ongoing work we have I want to say they bi-weekly meetings with the representative from tntp for staff um and administrators and we're popping into classrooms doing the observations and walkthroughs using the walkthrough tool you will see there's some redundancy in this document that talks about the walkthrough tool in our relationship with tntp the walk through tool has a big focus on our priorities um under the Grammy Junior Senior High School roof and one of the biggest areas is with the new teacher rubric um I had piloted the administrator one last year when it was engaging instruction inclusive instruction and they just changed a lot of the language um but we had created Mr frenier and I a student learning goal in a professional practice goal around this area to try in an effort to try to get all the staff on the same page and shift towards this practice so it talks about on my column here you can't see it um engaging inclusive instruction and inclusive practices so part of our professional development plan is a lot of work this year targeted towards making the classroom an equitable and safe environment for students and the last goal was the College and Career Readiness and we did a lot of work last year this section looks blank because we did a lot of work in this area and I left a couple things because it's ongoing work so we will continue to do the work with my cap and I believe you shared with me they accepted the grant are we in we pending State funding pending State funding and last year we were awarded probably I think an additional $3,000 I'm rounding up $3,000 and which was really nice because we were able to do different things as aside to just stiening the advisers we were able to make more progress which was necessary so for my cap what we're doing now is branching off to our Wellness classes and our freshman seminar class with work with the teachers which is really cool so I actually observed a classroom teacher today working in the Freshman seminar class which is awesome to see this work being done and before we were kind of just at a standstill but now they're popping into classrooms and they're being supported by um the students are being supported by the school counselor the classroom teacher um across grade levels you know each grade level has a different like scoping sequence so it's really cool to see it in action also the Big E for us is the it pathway and right now we're looking at the students that could technically be grandfathered in so are there any Juniors or sophomores that could be grandfathered in that have taken the coursework that we created in the pathway because we were really starting with this year's class the ninth graders so looking at that and if we have a need to amend the grant to reflect like covering the cost of Transportation because that's always our biggest hurdle and or coursework so seeing if there's any students that really fall within that um it need the work needed to be done by yes today October 1st because of the um how the you report the coursework to the state so we had to identify the student enrolled and the courses that were designated it so that's some of the work that we've been doing in that pathway and additional work is really focused Sarah Bearden and Brian s area doing a lot of the heavy lifting you know working on field trips you know college and career field trips and so there's not as much of a focus on college but also on the career so construction field trips I think women in engineering um so there's field trips that are all in the works which is really cool so aside from that I think just continued work in dual enrollment as we alluded to introducing Austin um we have five students enrolled full-time so we will continue to do the work to support our students um in and bring in different things U for the kiddos um I did just reive confirmation from one of the groups that attended our parent caregiver night is going to be joining our SST and this program is really designed to support students that are on the verge of dropping out um that are possibly older students that are a couple years behind and that would be able to fulfill um in a certificate program so we'll be meeting with them on October 22nd I believe it's a Tuesday so that's really cool to kind of build on some of these relationships and that really started through Mass higher which is the work through my cap um that we've been doing so and those are the four goals again not many changes to the goals any questions for Ally there's black here mhm that's not many changes but there's a lot of work there is a lot of work and a lot of work that's already been done and things I probably didn't share with you today that are on that aren't on here you know you can't capture it all yeah but I think seeing it and understanding now that's why portrait of a graduate isn't on here because it's just it's not possible to be able to um give it do run it with Fidelity right now I think it's something that we can table for the year and then revisit after we have established more of these um Partnerships I just have some generalized questions so I can learn some stuff um for goal number two for Equitable access and inclusion for ready what is the difference between equality and Equity that's a good qu that is a great great question right right so I view equality and equity and someone had to asked me this too so students should be able to have the same access to all their educational materials okay and the equity work is really the work that needs to be done to support the whole student and the processes and procedures around it and looking at it as a whole there's a lot of work that was done um I could allude to the NHS for example right we have things in place and grany that were in place that I didn't find was Equitable and I feel like several parents agreed that was an equitable practice so if you're full-time dual enrolled as a student and you were part of the NHS you were no longer considered to be part of the NHS because now you don't live under the gry root so that was something that we sat with the NHS and we kind of reviewed and updated to reflect an equitable front does that make sense okay okay the best example of you seen it too like being able to see over a fence like you want to have everybody be able to see over the fence but you have someone that's five foot tall and you have someone that's six foot tall and they both can't see until you give them a boost but what you give them is not equal meaning the person that's five 5T tall needs a much bigger step than the person who's 6 feet tall so they can both see and access the same thing so Equity does not always equal equality right can but doesn't always does that mean inherent um sorry I'm thinking as I'm going just because I'm learning as I'm going does that mean that each student doesn't get an equal share of whatever process or uh I don't know more the resources get spread out based on each individual's needs so they can all be at the same level they don't all get the same resources they get the resources in to be at the same spot so you all get a lad but the six foot person gets a shorter lad than the four person and I would say you would probably you can see some of that when you think about your kids in the classroom MH some kids may have more oneon-one time with the teacher to help bring them up to where they need to to be whereas other kids may not need that but they still need the overall instruction to get to the end learning goal so you know they're all provided with the same resources but someone might need a little more oneon-one time to get them to where it is that they're going like some students their piece to bring them more Equitable might be a parah to help them all right but we're not detracting from some students oh okay all right um that's a lot of the work that we're doing is how to make everything looking through what we have in place going through it with a fine to's comb and why like why are we doing it this way how is this accessible to everybody right so because not every student learns the same way right so you have to present things to me differently right so I can understand it versus how Todd May understand it and I think that's goes to show why we changed the math curriculum because it has a lot more um manipulatives and ways to do things because everybody doesn't learn the same exact way so it's kind of doing that same work giving um different ways to do things and with opportunities for everybody and access which is huge because right I could say I'm going to repeat the same exact thing that I just said so it's really just looking over all of that I don't know if I she had a better example well I think let me try to repeat what I've learned so making sure that all the students hit the assigned targets realigning existing assets to make sure that they hit those targets but not taking the available assets from students to realign them to other students is that right am I following you're following okay absolutely we want to make sure everybody's getting the services they need right okay I just want to make sure we weren't taking from some to give to the other there okay all right and uh I don't know what anti-racist uh is could you dive into that a bit I'm sure nobody here likes racism but I don't know what anti-racist is what are you looking integrate anti-racist and inclusive pedagogical strategies into instructional practices across all grade levels where is that it's on the goal number two under goal number two yeah action steps it's one of the lower bullets so this work is work that is being done I believe through our partnership with yes our partnership and work with CES so when we do the work when we do a lot of this work it's really it's again I'm going to go back to a lens it's looking through an equitable lens it's looking to see if there's implicit bias and in our teaching practices implicit bias in our literature and if there's bias in how we're handling our disciplinary proceedings um things of such so we've had instances of racial um racial uh words being used in the building right and bringing practices in to be able to support the students right that are the victim s of and using practices so the staff are able to support the students and we all establish like a Common Language and how to combat the language of use establish a common language which is appropriate to use right and being able to have like being able to have a conversation about it and so working with our student Advisory Group is a lot is where a lot of our work started and there's not like a set curriculum if you will this is a lot of work that we're doing with the ADL and meeting with them and having conversations on how to be better in school and it's really it's we haven't started that work again this year but it's for the staff it's part of their professional development plan and CES is slated to work I think it's in a series of six workshops with our students this year but we haven't got it off the ground yet um but it's work around that to support the students um so it's I have to repeat it back to learn it well so um so from I'm hearing it's appropriate language use in Social settings and teaching the kids why what they what that actually means when they say that so they have a deeper understanding and understand why it's inappropriate that's what anti-racism is so I don't want to go on quote unquote and around something that's super sensitive as a topic well it's a bullet in the goal so it is and I'm going to do the best that I can my work is to lead our school to use to establish a shared understanding of what's appropriate and educate students that use language that's in appropriate okay it's not to pass off um L it's not to pass off anyone's beliefs um on to students or anything of such um the work is it's work that's been ongoing in our district from the support of CES because of the sensitivity of the use of the words um that we've experienced um as I said we had some issues in the past couple years which I feel like we've done a really nice job and some wasn't just words some were symbols correct we had we did have some symbols we did have some symbols and again the work can be done in multifaceted through partnership with CES it's work that's done with our staff it's ongoing work and I don't know if there's that the work won't end um it's supporting the staff to be able to feel comfortable enough in their classrooms to address things when they come up and be able to hear the student students when they are victims of it and to be able to understand the impact at large because there is an impact at large on here and so if if you're if are you interpreting it as like this is a set curriculum honestly I'm just trying to learn about what that means yeah and I will tell you it's conversations that gramby wasn't used to having here and it's conversations that are really challenging to have and we've had more and more conversations in the past couple years and I feel like collectively as a staff in students I feel like everyone's presenting better and more comfortable than when we were three years ago when it first started we first seeing it okay I don't mean to slow us down but I have I have one more question just because um you ref you referenced implicit bias in teaching procedures could you give me an example or two about what that means uh within the district here yeah so the first example that I would give you is we as a school have been doing work around um novels and I'm just this is fresh right novels that we're reading in class and examining some of the novels that we're choosing to read with students and when was the last time we reviewed this list of novels um that we call that the gr it's our Gamby reading list it could be summer reading it could be in-house reading it could be anything but really examining the novels that we're choosing are there authors are they all white female authors are they all um black are they do we have various other readings um available for our students so that's some of the work we've done other work that we've done is looking at our specific teaching practice and whether or not our teaching practice is Equitable um we're using an equitable checklist to see as like a first classroom activity that we need to do with our staff um that was shared with us from CES and that's really to examine some of our classroom policies and things that we do just because it's been a practice that we established 25 years ago um so it's examining that it's really it's looking through that Equity lens it's looking through to see if you're fair in how you're presenting another area from our student responses is our students felt that last year that Administration wasn't fair in their discipline and so their survey responses when we put out the SAS survey last year they felt that that was an area that we could improve in they felt how we handled things wasn't fair so we we sat this summer really looked through the handbook and made sure that we dissected it to see if things that we were doing were fair if things were updated like the regulations the the law the mgl everything to see if there were things that we were doing that is the implicit bias um other work is we attended 22 plus hours as a group last year in partnership with cees with sapphire and Tom to put together a committee that reviewed the work that we were doing so if there is an incident that comes up a racial slur or a swastic or something that comes up instead of having Administration be the only two people to address the situation to remove ourselves so it's looked at from a whole um and that was work that we felt was necessary because at times you can be in a situation where you're working with a student that has Maybe the use of the nword multiple other times and then this you have to you know show ways of remediation prior to moving towards suspension so then when you're sitting with the student on the fifth time right it's looked at from a committee versus looked at from two people that may just be the people making the decision so it's to remove the bias all within when reviewing it um um did I break that down I gave you a few examples I think I'm tring yeah um so just uh yeah go ahead I was going to say I think the important thing is too that all of this work stems back to meeting educator standards that are put out by desie okay so like they're checking to make sure that like you're you're actively working on ensuring that there is no implicit bias and there is no bias when choosing curricular materials implementing different practices doing things like that so all of that goes back to the standards that administrators are held to teachers are held to and ultimately gets tied back into Desi so it's not you know it's not a grany move or initiative or anything like that I think it's just significant for Granby because this is how you the work is being done okay so it's a state level basically these are State Lev yeah when one of your standards is ensuring that there's a safe learning environment and you're meeting diverse needs and you to like go through and do all these things there were just so many bullets about like anti-racism and and stuff like that I was worried that we had a horrible racism problem here in the schools that was like undercurrent and I was unaware of it's It's there's it's there because of the work that we've been doing because it was needed to do it the the undercurrent no we needed to do this work we needed we didn't have structures and things in place to be able to address right into address we like restorative practices we didn't have like we brought in a lot of this work to be able to educate the students there was a need for that okay if we had a growing population of students that came into the district and of the students are of different ethnic background introducing students into gry which is primarily Caucasian is introducing like just introducing the cultures alone and I think that's where we're doing a lot of this work is trying to educate those students and say like we're going to talk about this now you know we're going to have these conversations teachers we need you to review you know the doc the lesson plans that you're putting together look at the novels that you're doing look at your practices when you're standing in front of your students you know is your practice trauma informed and there there's a heavy emphasis on a lot of this work yes you're right and it has been ongoing for the last couple of years and I feel confident about the work that we've done because we have sat with students educated met with families right and establish Partnerships and I feel like the students have a better understanding right than what they they did have a few years ago because of all this work and their voices are being heard which is important M and when we look at the SAS SAS survey it's the safe and support of schools act and when we look at those survey results I want to be able to see that our students feel safe in our building and that means a lot to me to be able to see those numbers and we look at those and we read every response because we want to see what they're thinking we want to see in their minds and so when they fill out that survey and some of the things say you need your discipline's unfair you're right I'm going to look at it and say what what are they talking about what are we missing so those are things and the survey is very telling because that's our student voice okay so that would be the quantifiable metrics that you measure it off year every year yes so last year was our first year running that specific survey because it was Grant supported right in the work and there's another committee that oversees a lot of that work and that is the work keep referring back to was CES so there's a lot of things Partnerships that we've established in the last couple of years um that fall in this section because it is the bulk of a lot of the work that we're doing and it all falls under the same umbrella honestly thank you for walking me through all this I hope it was helpful that was very very instructional no no no I I have a better understanding of why it's in there and why it's in there so much I was just just worried we had some horrific problem but if it's a state mandate and we're following along and the S survey came back and it needed to be prioritized like I can understand that okay yeah sorry to pep you with so many questions I was just genuine genuinely curious yeah okay but I I understand and if there's any additional questions that you have I'm happy to entertain them um I may not have all the right answers at all the right times but I'm very passionate about the work that we do and like it might like I said you could ask somebody else and they could say the you know explain better like jills can say the difference between equity and equality and my version could look a little bit different but I do know that if you talk to the students and the staff they will share with you the amount of work that we are doing in this area as long as we're meeting our targets not diverting assets from one student to another to meet those targets and we're building a community that that's what I'm going for I just yeah I get worried about people being put in certain buckets and that's kind of divisive as opposed to a holistic We Are One Community here so yeah I think you explained it very well so thank you for diving into it okay and everybody else here thank you does anybody else have any questions I'm just kidding I think we're I think we're good just they don't have to vote on this no I don't think toot have to present them okay thanks for everything you're doing if thank you if there's any changes like I said I'm still waiting for suggestions from the school council um but if there's any changes and I can update you on any of them aome okay thanks Lisa Jo thanks no um I sent everyone um the school Improvement plan electronically I you had it it's in our our F okay all right I just thought it'd be easier than trying to set it all there now with all that other stuff the screen up there is Tiny thanks Al good evening uh Lisa d l uh East medal School principal and here to present the 2425 School Improvement plan so um just to begin um I'd like to just thank all the stakeholders and the building and then the community members who help to uh provide input and feedback and put together these um these goals um it takes a lot of thought and work to to Really flesh out like where we see the need for the work and to think about how that plays out what it looks like for the whole year and and feels very ambitious I I will say it always feels very ambitious uh like the Junior Senior High School we have our goals have stayed somewhat the same but we've tweaked them uh as we uh started on the path of some of the goals last year made our targets and made growth but now we kind of taking it to the next level in many situations so the first goal is is uh focusing on enhancing high quality instruction and student centered learning we're really looking to move away from a classroom where it's a Stand and Deliver type of instruction where the teacher is teaching their teaching one specific way teaching all students and there is not that type of equity built into the classroom we have a couple of new curriculum uh that we are just beginning to implement this year we have the IM math implementation and uh also the empowering writers at grades 4 through six and we're also spending a lot of we started last year but we're starting to look at different ways to structure our classroom so that the all students are engaged in meaningful discourse that students are able to work together collaboratively we we want to be able to walk in and see students talking and discussing about what they're learning for them to take ownership of their learning and uh that also goes along with cultur culturally responsive class uh practices so that's where we're really looking at what kinds of experiences and uh cultural backgrounds that our students come with because we want to build upon those build upon those strengths gramby is becoming more diverse and we want to ensure that everyone has access and everyone feels like they are part of our learning communities uh and that also goes along with it it's similar to inclusive instruction instructional practices where everyone is able to access and participate and get their needs met within the the teaching um goal number two uh we are um continuing to grow um and looking at our scores in um how students are achieving not only in classroom assessments benchmark assessments State assessments uh but um overall we want to see that they're continuing to grow in their Ela and in their math proficiency uh we're still seems like we're struggling with the effects of covid but really making some nice gains and it feels like uh we have some structures in place to hone in on getting data and making some good decisions about what we're doing with that data so we can provide the targeted instructions and supports that students need so we've already uh we have the benchmarking three times a year many teachers are using progress monitoring as well to see if their students are making progress uh we had our data team meetings last week and we'll have action plans that we'll be looking at to implement for students that we feel need the more targeted instruction uh we're also incorporating the Swiss in attendance uh information as well because that also has an impact upon student learning if students are coming to school or coming toy every day we're taking a really close look at that and we've done a nice job in the last year and I I'll share that in a little bit uh continuing to build our multi-tier systems of support so we're at the point now where uh We've increased our our Wind Block which is called what I need and it's the way that we're envisioning it it's an all Hands-On deck whatever teachers special ed teacher supports um interventionists are available during that assigned Block it's um it's sort of all hands on deck and we're looking at how we're going to group the students so that you know could be some students are working on in a lower grade phic awareness some students might be working on letter sound ID some working on uh learning how to write complete sentences or capitalization or maybe math effects or those students that really don't have uh an area of a deficit they might be working in uh some kind of group where it's a literature study or working on some sort of inde independent project with teacher oversight so we're really trying to get better at differentiating and looking at like what do we want to Target looking at that periodically making the adjustments and then uh shifting groups and continuing to uh move students along uh and again goal the next slide is goal area two Focus continued um so we are continuing to look at assessment data and the teachers have done a really great job on learning how to use ourl which is a benchmarking tool as well as the Dibbles tool and they have lessons that they can use and you probably see some of it coming home with Chromebooks if uh in past years and maybe this year already uh but it's something that we keep a close eye on and we really are getting so much better at using the data to think about what pieces in our curriculum that we're not hitting and that it's reflecting in the student data uh and and that's something we'll be taking a close look at especially with mcast data coming up we have new science standards we'll be assessed on the new science standards this year at mcast so we really want to get a handle on know what parts of our curriculum are we not hitting uh where students consistently were seeing patterns and and trying to get a handle on that and improving our instructional practices and um sort of adapting our curriculum so that we are ensuring that all the STS are being hit uh goal number three uh this is a it's important to have a school where students feel safe and supported and their emotional needs are met or they they really can't be good um they can't be successful Learners academically so really looking at the whole child and uh continuing to improve upon our PBIS we've made some changes in our uh systems this year uh continuing to celebrate student academic success uh we are continuing now with our second year of the bullying prevention program and we'll also be pulling in U Mark again to uh B some bullying prevention assemblies and continuing on in with our student council representation which uh really did they did an awesome job last year they made a buddy bench in the back of the school we're looking to expand upon that and uh it just seems to keep growing every year so we're really pleased with the student ownership piece and how much students love to be part of that and what they can bring to the school and we're we're constantly brainstorming new ways to get them to be more um visible and and taking ownership of their own school again uh more social and emotional uh development on the next slide uh one of the changes this year is the social workers are now sometimes going into the lunchroom and sitting at the tables with students and having lunch groups in there so it's more of a push more of a you know sort of collaborative having lunch with with a a buddy in there and they've also begun developing schedules to visit each classroom monthly uh focusing on a social emotional uh topic using literature and going into the classrooms and reading with the students having prepared lessons and connecting that to our PBIS and our core values one of the things that we noticed with the social workers is that they're often only working with the students who are having challenges and I wanted them to get a better handle on knowing all the students in the classrooms and becoming a familiar face so that uh they're they're known to everyone and not just when they're having a moment or they're sad or having trouble with something I just wanted them to be integrated more and that the teachers are really excited about it in the social workers I think for the most part are um but it's a new thing and we're we're going to go for it and you know it's kind of exciting the way it's evolved uh again Girls on the Run um I'm happy to say we've hired a coordinator for the 21st century after school programming and she started um Monday and uh she's coming to staff meeting tomorrow to talk about what the program is going to look like and we're looking to hire now a instructional uh directors to lead the programs and um we're just so excited that we we have this grid because a lot of communities applied did not get it uh we're just thrilled that we got it and it's it should be in place for a number of years uh and I just think it will offer so much for the students at in gr B There's real there's no rec department in gramy there's there's not a lot for kids to do after school and so now we will be to provide enrichment programming every day five days a week we have TR uh money for transportation we have money for snacks and materials it'll run till 5:30 offer homework support snacks um outside playtime but then the enrichment activities and they'll be focused in around mathematics that was the theme that we picked we thought it would be a nice uh segue from our new illustrative math program to really keep honing in on the mathematics pieces um and uh uh more we continue to have PBS events events which the kids absolutely love and they're always asking for more and we just keep thinking of new ideas and so if you have any um please let me know uh and uh finally last year we uh in our accountability report our uh we had a04 attendance and this year we have a four so last year we really targeted and I'm gonna credit Mr Rosenberg and Caitlyn Falcone because they really took the bull by the horns and we sent out letters we held meetings um not everyone was happy to get those letters but it's the law and we really stuck to it and it made a huge difference um the zero on the accountability report impacts our rating as a school and to go from a zero to four in one year is just pretty remarkable and but it all it's all due to the efforts of my staff so we're going to continue on with that because intended still continues to be an issue we know that the students who are late or tardy um those are the students that are coming up as uh below grade level well below grade level and struggling so it's it's critical that we continue to reinforce stay on top of it and get those kiddos to school I've gone so far as um we've had to go and pick up kids just because they couldn't get a ride and we'll come get you um is it's that it's that important to us we W want families to know that so that's East Meadow and a nutshell any questions a lot of great work here too as well thank you for all the work on here thank you I Now understand Equity so I don't have to ask you about that yeah the PBIS is a great program it really my kids are always fired up about are they and your story about keeping the Matchbox car for that one individual student resonated with me last year so that's a good program yeah thanks thanks I appreciate the feedback right any questions for Lisa okay thank you so much you hey we're on to school choice in the enrollment dashboard there really hasn't been any change there's been one student um enrolled at the high school um but the numbers aren't in here because say it's October 1st so um it's just been one new student at the high school so those numbers haven't changed so is that the this is the number that we reported then for Sims today yep that's it reported for today so that's going to end up hurting us in the long run because of FL right H probably so we're going have to do a better job in one of I'll talk about yes numbers have not changed what grade do you have a student in what you one new student this month yes seventh grade I I couldn't remember for seventh or E she told me today so new seventh grade that's all we have any questions or anything on the dashboard or school choice okay so now we'll take a break for our subcommittees we have policy and um Finance it's 7:50 is half hour enough time for me yeah I mean you could we could go till midnight really right several weeks well why don't we touch base at a half an hour and see um what we're thinking uh so we're going to pause here with the feed and we'll break into our group and we'll be back at about 820 is and we're back all right policy one of you uh sure we uh went through section c just to make sure it was in line with with the current mask um policies um there weren't too many changes a few sections that were redundant based on pre-existing or other newer subsections kind of struck out and if that wasn't with mask and combined a couple again to make them in line with uh the overall State sweet so we'll have a first read soon if next may you guys are rockar anything else um no did you want to first read on the next agenda okay yeah you can get in there and make a copy of what's there and then go through any of the changes so everyone can see them and you should be good excellent Finance Mike so we went over the uh fiscal year 26 budget calendar the draft of it and kind of refined some of the dates and did some brainstorming about alternate ways to cover uh potential capital projects and uh we're in the very initial phases of that budgeting process and uh it's a good start yeah one thing we did talk about is um how to generate interest for people to attend our public forum we want to try to have that public forum earlier so we can actually get some input from people um and I'm I don't mean to be a Debbie Downer but I'm I'm not sure what we can do differently to try to engage with people and have them come so that we can have actual conversation um so I'm certainly open to ideas can we do like a primer through gcam or something like that say it again can we do a primer through gcam just general bullet points and then say if you want to actually like get the full thing I don't how it seems like there is a pocket of audience that looks at that yeah there um there certainly is so I think we have to try to do that but we really need the people to be here and engaged um so we did have good luck the one year we tried to do when we were uh we did it wow let me try to get a full sentence out um we did it on Zoom during Co oh yeah we were in person but we had had people call in and we actually had um I won't say robust but we definitely had some interaction so I don't know if we can still offer something like that um maybe instead of having it in person if we can do a zoom meeting I'm not sure where we land with that um no longer have zoom licensing okay because to get the webinar module that would require was thousands of dollars so I was obviously asked to remove that the budget because it wouldn't pay $6,000 a year for something it might be used for one night or two nights or yeah so does um I wonder if gcam has something that you know if we did it through yes we could maybe use their license if they'd let us if they have one yeah or you know just maybe let's brainstorm and bring it back for next time some ideas of how to do it cuz I mean we want all out with Chartwells and had had it catered and you know set up in the cafeteria and we've set up in this room I know um a previous school committee member um made her own flyers and went and tried to engage with people at the Dunkin Donuts and you know just really um so I'm at a lot like I'm I personally have run out of ideas like I'm not really sure but um and we're looking at um early to mid December for um for that so we get that gives us enough time to engage with them see if there's any ideas things that are important to them so that as we're building out and finalizing the budget we can try to take those things into um account and then the other thing that we talked about and it's you know we've been around and around on this but just revisiting is what are some things that we could do to increase our revenue for the school different ideas you know what is there something that's a nugget that's we're we're missing like we're overlooking you know um whatever it may be but there's I feel like there's got to be something that we can do to help us to be able to create some Revenue because I feel like the budget's we're going to have a tough uh we're in it now there's no extra money left our enrollments down um those two things are not not very nicely paired together so um we talked about uh alternate uses of school facilities via leases during um non-school times for potential uh income but uh there are some concerns about safety related issues and cleanliness and things of that nature so we're kicking around ideas so just uh you just let those niggle in the back of your head and maybe we can come up with something um because it would be nice to go to the town and say hey we're going to use the building in these different ways to try to help offset some of the um problems that we have you know I don't know anyway I think that's all that we have do you have anything to add no all right standing reports Mary Jane um as a continu of the ready work I attended a conference on Monday September 23rd to Department of Education and it was a workshop focusing on helping a districts create goals uh creating a culture of equity again which is what we talked about earlier today and specifically they were talking about how to look at your curriculum to help elll Learners um so we don't have a lot of ell learners but some of the uh resources that they provided maybe help for for helpful helpful to us in the future um so this really uh worked this work directly aligns with our strategic objectives high quality instruction and safe and supportive schools um so the information was really um directed to um our direct our district walkthrough tool that we've been using um on our uh on a weekly basis um Lisa kind of alluded to it but we do have a new um site coordinator for the 21st century Grant and it is roxan uh book bucks bomb um so she has been um in other districts like East Hampton for 14 years working on programs like this and so as Lisa said she's going to be meeting with the staff tomorrow afternoon and uh information is going to come out to the families about um how this after school program can and before school program can support us in the future just give to be a little update on dual enrollment uh we have 37 dual enrollment students five of which are full-time um and we all we partner with HCC and the El so I just want to uh put that out so we do have a student that is doing full-time El Elms in snhu um SN yeah snhu so those that's what we have for that and I just want to remind everybody that the Commonwealth dual enrollment partnership was formed U by the department of Ved our students can take two courses in one year one in September and one in January and and anybody that is a full-time student is paying the um institutions right for the ones that want full-time um so I attached that link so can take a look at it just what it looks like we also have five students enrolled as part of the collegate academy uh from UMass in a early college program and so we work on that early college program with um Hatfield Hadley eastampton and yeah there us four and uh we have uh five students that are now participating in synchronous learning and asynchronous learning um Monday through Thursday and on Friday they meet um with uh the professor from um with the other students from the other districts in a Sociology class so um we're looking to increase our partnership with them as well and they're actually looking at some Pathways for our students which include business engineering education Arts health and some stem I also included the link for that as well so that's a um something we're really trying to increase our um participation with increase our uh on that on Wednesday September 25th I met with Representatives Mindy Dum and Dan Casey um they stopped by introduce themselves to me actually so it was really nice Dan Carrie oh Carrie oh okay thanks um I think I was calling him Casey so topics topics we discussed they were talking about early college and dual enrollment programs and they pledged to offer us continued support and grant funding and allocation through advocacy and allocation so if we're applying for Grants really let them know they really want to take the opportunity to work to make sure that Granby um gets the the money that we're looking so I'm really going to um be reaching out to those folks but um Dan KY will be leaving um for a new position at in the courts of East Hampton and I think it's going to be um goms maybe the new person with have I think it's G goms so we'll be having that person um as our new rep mcast releases past week and both Ally and Lisa mentioned that we've started preliminary work with the mcast we have made um some strides in the last um year substantial progress but um of course there's are we need to look at as a group to hone in on where our students need some support so the admin team will be looking at our district data at the next week at our district instructional leadership team meeting and the schools have already started looking at theirs we have um a new program for some of our students um called unified basketball it's through the MIAA the unified basketball is a sports program that brings together students with and without intellectual disabilities to play basketball as a team um we have five students already who are interested in participating and so um you don't have you could be a starting out player you could be somebody with um experience but it's really just to get um students um to participate that normally wouldn't participate in other sports this I don't believe it's new we've had this for the past couple of years actually yeah I think this might be our third or fourth season actually oh excellent perfect continuation yeah when they called my special ed director said he new I said okay well anyway we're doing unified basketball again well you guys are both new so so there we go so um there and I actually asked Todd today he actually no wonder you knew the answer to this question um I was wondering how they played unified basketball during basketball season or during volleyball season he said it's between those two seasons that they they do that because we have basket volleyball now and then basketball later so I said where do they practice and he goes it's between so I should have known you knew that because it was more than one year but that's all I have right now Chad um couple updates so uh as we talked about with the budget subcommittee so I put the um draft calendar in your folder so if you want to take a look at that some of the dates that are highlighted in yellow are dates that are going to change based on staff meetings for the different buildings things like that so there is still a little bit of movement in that um but if you have questions please let me know um I applied for and got an extension for the end of the year report till the end of October uh there's some areas that I'm looking for a little bit more information uh so I can move forward with that and then um we did get notification of approval of a number of uh grants computer um science and engagement Grant hate crime prevention Grant uh myap uh Grant which uh Miss Jordan had been talking about our Innovation career pathway uh for the it and then our safe and supportive School Grants um we've also submitted our applications for our title grants and our idea grants um and lastly as was also mentioned from our subcommittee report um we've fully expended uh Esser funds um and so we're be looking forward to those challenges as we navigate uh our budgets with with those federal funds uh now expended so that's all that I have kchen um we're we talked about this uh previously that we'll be doing going out to bid um having those bid documents in January uh to have everything available for March okay so I'm just going to keep on it that's off and are we are we finally back to square from the lightning strike two years ago uh yes EXC okay anything else for Todd well I'm just looking at the fiscal year budget calendar November's I haven't looked the others but November's dates are yeah there's some weird because well it says Tuesday November 5th and then Tuesday November 7th yeah we there we know we we recognize that he's just like trying to keep the number of um weeks that we had and number of appointments and okay that's why he was saying that all the stuff in yellow is probably going to change well that's not a there yeah there's okay I I'm trying to look ahead because my schedule gets funky then so most of so anything in uh November December uh for the full committee will just be updates in a regularly scheduled school committee meeting uh typically in January we'll have a meeting with the chair um of the school committee and the select or select board representative and the Town Administrator um so that would be outside of our regular once we get into March and April is when we'll have the additional meetings for public forums and hearings but for the committee itself it'll be just during regular uh meetings okay so you don't have to adjust your schu too much yet yeah I was like November 28th that's Thanksgiving we'd be very thankful with a budget uh Jill so I do have a review of the executive director's report um I unfortunately wasn't able to attend the meeting due to a work commitment um but they did gather for their 50th anniversary celebration at CES um they reviewed what's happening in some of the special education in institutional settings um and the department of um Youth Services settings um there was a lot of discussion around the um professional learning communities that they're working with to try to provide opportunities for educators um more specifically those that are not often kind of represented in the the general kind of professional development that districts may offer so things like um art Educators health and PE Educators Early Childhood Educators and things like that to provide some different opportunities for them and the other piece that they share that I thought was helpful and I will put it um within our resource folder um it's kind of a breakdown of both the um Franklin and Hampshire County um use of service so gr's included in there with using everything from the occupational therapy center to itinerate Services which is like occupational therapy again but vision therapy orientation and Mobility some on-site PD professional learning communities lure support special education Consulting um the title 3 Grant um there's a legal issue seminar and then everything through like healthy and family communities pretty much much gr's taking advantage of everything um except for maybe the youth mental first aid um there's a lot within early childhood and the enrichment program that was highlighted um the after school for the 21st century Grant excellent all right is there anything else all right our next meeting I think is the 15 15th um anything that we want to make sure is chart Wells coming uh we anticipate Chartwells attendant okay great um anything anything else what have the policy can you just let me know what policy you're going to be doing c section c all of C what we went through it's it's shorter otherwise we wouldn't have gone through it I just didn't have to pick one or two okay perfect got it um and I think that's it right like we can uh we don't need to do subcommittees because we just met um maybe some things will come up I will follow up with Kathy about um Liz and maybe she'll be able to attend if we can get all that um coordinated and straightened out um so I think that's it I mean stuff might pop up between now and then but um other that I will take the motion I'll make the motion to adjourn tonight's meeting second all those in favor right thanks everybody have a good night for